Sunday 1st March 2026
Apparently the first day of Spring. Well, let’s just say that it felt nothing like it!
Two TRAC runners – Ollie Regan and Andy Whitnell braved the challenging conditions to tackle this “interesting” course. One was very successful – the other less so. More on this later.
Stelling Minnis is a small village in the Folkestone and Hythe district. So very rural country lanes and trail paths. The weather forecast had initially said it would be overcast but dry. Well, it couldn’t have been more wrong. It had rained a lot the day before and on the way down there was light drizzle but quite a strong wind. Come the start this had turned into heavier rain and even stronger winds. Coupled with the already wet roads from the previous months rain this made the underfoot conditions very tricky.
The start was at the Village Hall and was in two waves. The reason for this became clear early on as the runners come back past the start point after a couple of minutes – probably less than that for the faster runners. The first part of the course was actually ok but as they were all country roads this meant having to be wary of what was under your feet – a lot of horses use these roads so will leave it to your imagination what was lurking there.
We had been warned about hills beforehand but not how steep they were. There was one uphill in the early part that was through trails. I – Andy – tried to run it but could see that a lot of participants were walking and about halfway my legs were asking me to do the same.
Then just before halfway there was a very steep downhill that if there had been snow on it would not have been out of place at the recent Winter Olympics downhill race. Staying upright on very tricky underfoot conditions felt like a success!
The course then flattened out for a bit before another very steep uphill section. This thankfully was the last of them. It was then about a mile or so to the finish which couldn’t come quick enough.
When I got back, soaking wet and exhausted, I saw a beaming Ollie, who told me he had come first. Well done Ollie on a fantastic achievement.
As one participant put it – If you weren’t there and love steep hills, wind and rain then you missed a treat!
Results:
1) Oliver Regan 36.22
81) Andy Whitnell 01:03:20
